Science in Action

November 07, 2016

Intellectual pursuit is at the heart of Lewis & Clark’s liberal arts education. Students who study the sciences get to work with award-winning professors, conduct graduate-level research, and experiment in top-notch facilities. There’s a reason students thrive here—classes are challenging but also fun. We emphasize research as a teaching tool, so ideas explored in the classroom come to life when tested in the lab. Students can learn about spiders from a famous arachnologist and launch pumpkins from a student-built trebuchet.

It’s not surprising, then, that Lewis & Clark has a reputation for producing amazing young scientists. In the spring, Eve Lowenstein BA ’17 received a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the preeminent award for undergraduates in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics. Fifteen Lewis & Clark students have won Goldwater scholarships in the past decade. Last year alone, five young alumni also received National Science Foundation fellowships.

Our facilities include research labs, the James Kerle Observatory, and the Natural Science Shop, a space where students can build, design, or repair many different types of research equipment and scientific apparatus. In this video below, Stephen Attinasi, science shop supervisor and physics lab coordinator, talks about the shop and how it can help students apply concepts they learn in their physics, chemistry, and biology classes.